According to the Boston Globe, on Wednesday night over 200 people attended Gatto's memorial service was held at Christ Episcopal Church, where the funeral service for the popular Needham football star will be held on Saturday.

"When adversity strikes, real men step up." Those were the words of men's head basketball coach Tom Pecora last week when forward Adrian Uter found himself gasping for air on the Hofstra Arena floor.

The Student Government Association's (SGA) proposal to increase the Student Activity fee may raise tuition $54 a year. The potential raise, which will go into effect next fall if approved by the University Board of Trustees, would add a substantial amount of money to SGA's budget.

Coach Tom Pecora stood, arms crossed, leering out over the practice floor, watching his players trot up and down the court, perfecting the fast-break drill. The pain of running to-and-fro was palpable as time dripped off the practice clock and sweat ran down their faces.

The wait is over. Fumbling the chance to clinch a berth in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) playoffs in its first two seasons as a conference member, the Pride men's soccer team not only earned the fifth seed this season, but last Sunday won the CAA Championship in a 1-0 defeat of third seeded Old Dominion University (ODU) at Virginia Commonwealth University's (VCU) Sports Backers Stadium.

Even though the Pride volleyball team failed to get home court advantage in the upcoming Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championship Tournament, head coach Fran Kalafer is not worried. As far as she is concerned, the season has just begun.

Head coach Felisha Legette-Jack has always been passionate about basketball. She was passionate when she was the star forward of her high school basketball team, when she out-maneuvered, out-played, and out-willed Big East opponents for four years at Syracuse University, and especially when she received the 2003-2004 CAA Coach of the Year honors.

Out of the eleven players on the Pride's roster this season, three are freshmen. Add the injury to perennial first-team All-CAA forward Amaka Agugua and the absence Whitney Vose, another freshman forward waiting to join the team, and what do you have? That's an undermanned team in a competitive conference relying on three first-year players to shoulder a big chunk of the work load during the first half of the season.

Most colleges and universities boast an international students program, a system which allocates benefits to both the foreign students and the institution itself. The international students benefit from the exciting opportunity to attend school while at the same time immersing themselves in a foreign culture.

The northernmost point I ventured during my five-week journey in Italy was Venice, but some study abroad students who went with me roamed all the way to Milan this past summer.

The New College within the University is a place where students and professors interact in a unique way within the classroom. The professors are well-educated in the areas that they teach which include Creative Studies, Humanities, Social Science, Natural Science, and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Light up your life...with Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. On Nov. 11, the South Asian Students Association (S.A.S.A) held its first annual Diwali Dinner in honor to celebrate this auspicious day. Diwali's beginning is marked by the Epic tale of the Ramayana and the battle of good over evil between Lord Ram and the evil King Ravan.

Queens is not the first borough of New York that comes to the minds of University students. After seeing the wide variety of exciting events, restaurants and attractions that Queens has to offer, it is a surprising that Queens is not better known.

When coaches give their seasonal perspectives, they usually attempt to rate team performance. Such perspectives come frequently in a season - sometimes not. For Pride head coach Bob Schwab, season perspectives come daily as he has seen his Men's and Women's Golf teams live in the depths of success.

Most college athletes will tell you coaches are looked up to as role models. Relationships in sports emerge between teammates. A family-like atmosphere emerges during long practices and team meetings with teammates becoming siblings, and the coach becoming a sort of parental figure.

Brian Ferrara was stunned. "It's bittersweet, I guess," said Ferrara, captain of the Pride Ice Hockey club, trying describe the Pride's 5-4 overtime loss in a shootout Saturday night. Indeed it was, as the Pride played from behind all night and forced overtime after pulling goalie George Lorenz with under a minute to play.

Incoming freshmen guard Jorge Lebron broke away from the practice huddle along with sophomore guard Carlos Rivera. Childhood friends from Puerto Rico, the duo will strive to help the Pride improve on last season's record (14-15) and hopefully give the Pride its first NCAA tournament berth since the 2000-2001 season.

The most deafening sound in the Pride locker room was the silence. No music blared, no high-fives exchanged. Disbelief and disappointment marked most faces until the silence was broken by linebacker Gian Villante's hush but poignant words.

Stunned students sprung from their desks last Thursday afternoon as the fire alarm sounded and smoke permeated the Hofstra Dome. Richard Drury, the director of the University's physical plant department, said the small electrical fire originated from a motor in the exhaust fan of the elevator after someone shorted the circuit.